tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.comments2015-08-02T10:45:14.739-04:00Out In Left FieldKatharine Bealshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comBlogger4342125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-50682650952312651142015-08-02T10:45:14.739-04:002015-08-02T10:45:14.739-04:00Many thanks for the generous remarks about my nove...Many thanks for the generous remarks about my novel. Some very interesting comments here. I especially like the quote from W.E.B Du Bois. My son read both Ender&#39;s Game and The Hobbit at school -- both were right up his street. He probably would have hated a teen coming-of-age type story.Stella Whitemanhttp://www.stellawhiteman.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-27027820273405935582015-07-30T12:48:19.437-04:002015-07-30T12:48:19.437-04:00Last week, when you posted the MPOTW, I went and t...Last week, when you posted the MPOTW, I went and took the online sample for 4th grade. The way they asked the questions was often tortuous! It&#39;s like they tried to find the most complicated way to create a multiple choice exam. <br /><br />Students could have shown their understanding by asking them to actually *solve* the problem. Another problem could have displayed the problem as a division problem with the divisor missing, and asked kids to *solve* it. <br /><br />I found the number of times kids were actually asked for an answer ridiculously low--and pointless. The philosophy seems to be: asking kids to actually solve math problems is not as good as writing complicated and tortured problems to force them to figure out the logic of the test writers. To me it seems no better, and often worse. <br /><br />Again and again they gave the kids a set of equations and asked them which one was right, instead of having them generate the equations themselves and solve the problem. It makes no sense.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-5109953385753011192015-07-30T12:19:42.059-04:002015-07-30T12:19:42.059-04:00I guess Nicole doesn&#39;t know how to divide?I guess Nicole doesn&#39;t know how to divide?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-28297421004695062082015-07-28T23:34:06.637-04:002015-07-28T23:34:06.637-04:00Poor grading also leaves a lot of room for fudging...Poor grading also leaves a lot of room for fudging and bias.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-42463371640071257812015-07-28T21:49:07.074-04:002015-07-28T21:49:07.074-04:00This sounds depressingly like the school at the be...This sounds depressingly like the school at the beginning of The Silver Chair.Cynthia812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-35625695006634039112015-07-28T10:23:11.999-04:002015-07-28T10:23:11.999-04:00The English teacher does a good job with it and st...The English teacher does a good job with it and students I&#39;ve talked to say they enjoy the book. Barry Garelickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281266848110087415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-59088508370235651532015-07-28T09:18:42.568-04:002015-07-28T09:18:42.568-04:00Let&#39;s hope they don&#39;t ruin it.Let&#39;s hope they don&#39;t ruin it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-27188982261682099102015-07-27T21:59:53.111-04:002015-07-27T21:59:53.111-04:00The middle school where I work teaches The Hobbit....The middle school where I work teaches The Hobbit.Barry Garelickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281266848110087415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-75829075831585837772015-07-27T20:14:46.429-04:002015-07-27T20:14:46.429-04:00Yes, what kcab said!
Thank goodness schools don&#...Yes, what kcab said!<br /><br />Thank goodness schools don&#39;t teach Harry Potter, or the Narnia series, or the Tolkien books.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-37590722556213629542015-07-27T20:09:06.341-04:002015-07-27T20:09:06.341-04:00One reason not to teach Harry Potter is that they&...One reason not to teach Harry Potter is that they&#39;d ruin it. At least for some kids, requiring a book is going to make it less lovable.<br /><br />Though, my kids have usually gotten over that for a really enjoyable story. Ninth-grade summer reading is &quot;Ender&#39;s Game&quot; here, both have enjoyed that one.kcabnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-591755266308045412015-07-26T17:09:48.922-04:002015-07-26T17:09:48.922-04:00W.E.B. Du Bois:
&quot;I sit with Shakespeare, and...W.E.B. Du Bois:<br /><br />&quot;I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil.&quot;Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-16483865429272164742015-07-26T16:38:21.379-04:002015-07-26T16:38:21.379-04:00Auntie Ann, I totally agree. In the words of Fran...Auntie Ann, I totally agree. In the words of Fran Lebowitz, reading should not be a mirror, but a door.FedUpMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00951858601020687242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-59268685903607250652015-07-26T13:54:46.095-04:002015-07-26T13:54:46.095-04:00In 8th grade, most of the girl&#39;s class reading...In 8th grade, most of the girl&#39;s class reading list consisted of teen coming-of-age stories; her favorite book of the year though was the one that wasn&#39;t like the others: Cyrano de Bergerac.<br /><br />We&#39;ve completely lost the idea that education should *broaden* one&#39;s horizons, not box us in to our own little worlds.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-65890468363591534862015-07-26T11:23:05.298-04:002015-07-26T11:23:05.298-04:00Text-to-self -- don&#39;t get me started. I was j...Text-to-self -- don&#39;t get me started. I was just writing about one of my favorite books from childhood, Dickon Among the Lenapes, here:<br /><br />http://kidfriendlyschools.blogspot.com/2015/07/dickon-among-lenapes.html<br /><br />It&#39;s the story of an English boy who gets shipwrecked off the Atlantic coast in 1612 and is taken in by a Lenape tribe. Did I love it because it related to my daily life? I think not.FedUpMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00951858601020687242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-57215417516460883522015-07-24T12:48:06.201-04:002015-07-24T12:48:06.201-04:00Books have gotten badly out of hand over the years...Books have gotten badly out of hand over the years. I kept wondering why the high school kid&#39;s books seem so much worse than when I was in high school. I remember heavy backpacks, but nothing like today.<br /><br />Well...I have in 3 algebra textbooks:<br /><br />- The New School Algebra, by G.A. Wentworth, published in 1898.<br /><br />- Algebra: Structure and Method. by Dolciani, et al., published in 1990.<br /><br />- Algebra 1, by Littell, published in 2007.<br /><br /><a href="https://scontent-lax1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/11001836_787152021339889_1760436475776933547_n.jpg?oh=43c4390609b837bc5e973684fa755a39&amp;oe=5617D220" rel="nofollow">There&#39;s a photo of the three of them here</a><br /><br />Their respective weights are: 1 pound, 3 pounds, and 5 pounds.<br /><br />The 2007 book is larger in every way. The cover is at least an inch longer and wider than the 1990 one, and there are at least 200 more pages, and the weight of the paper is heavier and glossier. Each iteration gets about an inch longer and wider and adds a couple of pounds.<br /><br />Last time I checked, algebra hasn&#39;t undergone any changes since 1898 or 1990.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-32027236451684762502015-07-24T12:43:16.206-04:002015-07-24T12:43:16.206-04:00FUM: exactly. Mathematics and logic have tradition...FUM: exactly. Mathematics and logic have traditionally gone hand-in-hand. I guess, not anymore!<br /><br />Also, since the set up is only that larger fractions have a smaller denominator, 4/7ths, 5/7th, 6/7ths or 1348766/7ths should all be correct answers, yet the rest of the problem does not seem to include those answers as part of the solution set.<br /><br />I&#39;d also note that on problem #9, no carrying is required. Do any of the problems on the exam require carrying? Do the subtraction problems require borrowing? Considering the input method runs left to right, it makes doing math right to left difficult, which suggests that they don&#39;t have that on the actual test.<br /><br />I wonder how some of the problems are graded. There are several on the whole test which I think you could fill in at least two different ways, and if the test preparers didn&#39;t take that into account, the student will have done it right but gotten the wrong answer. (I&#39;m thinking of the chip bag problem, which doesn&#39;t explicitly say you have to put one bag on the left and the other on the right--if a kid filled it out the other way would it be counted correctly?)<br /><br />It also takes forever to go through the test. The problems would only take a couple of minutes on paper, but take a great deal longer on the screen.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-33521953464488920502015-07-24T12:41:30.968-04:002015-07-24T12:41:30.968-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-45333341189577635272015-07-24T11:25:49.477-04:002015-07-24T11:25:49.477-04:00I get stuck at the very first line. &quot;A stude...I get stuck at the very first line. &quot;A student claims that all fractions ...&quot; followed by &quot;show this is only sometimes true.&quot; A claim that all x are y is either true or false. It isn&#39;t sometimes true. If you find a counter-example you have proved the claim false. FedUpMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00951858601020687242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-35459880000135592682015-07-24T10:23:17.624-04:002015-07-24T10:23:17.624-04:00Regular Visitor, what country were you in last yea...Regular Visitor, what country were you in last year? Were your kids in an international school or a regular one? Thanks so much for your perspective--I&#39;m very interested in international comparisons of textbooks.Katharine Bealshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-11031440228274661392015-07-24T05:56:04.780-04:002015-07-24T05:56:04.780-04:00We have been abroad for this past academic year an...We have been abroad for this past academic year and will be again this year and one of the things that has been a revelation is textbooks. Of course the system is entirely different than in the U.S. as textbooks are a cost borne by families and as such there is pressure to keep them priced affordably. As a consequence there are no full color throw in the kitchen sink heavy monstrosities. The textbook that my seventh grader used for history last year is much closer to a text that would be found in an American University. In fact not even for an introductory 101 type course, it was more akin to what you might see in a higher level course. It’s a focused text that detailed the history of the region with useful black and white maps and simple black and white photos of artifacts from museums. Homework questions required students to show they had read the chapters and could explain why events at the beginning of the chapter led to later events at the end. Leaving aside that the journal assignment seems useless for the study of history, the prose seems to be at third grade level. “Describe your feelings as you read a selection or look at a photograph. Are you angry, frustrated, or sad?” Perhaps just bored and underchallenged by the material. It seems sometimes that the textbook industry in the U.S. is seriously off the rails.Regular Visitornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-83241667618554441792015-07-22T15:47:52.501-04:002015-07-22T15:47:52.501-04:00It looks like they&#39;re looking for doubleplusun...It looks like they&#39;re looking for doubleplusungood crimethink.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-6047754570410461002015-07-22T14:39:04.543-04:002015-07-22T14:39:04.543-04:00I&#39;m beginning to think educators really would ...I&#39;m beginning to think educators really would rather be psychologists.Auntie Annhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05777983027361603449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-21515285324719525752015-07-22T10:30:31.040-04:002015-07-22T10:30:31.040-04:00Seriously? Who ever asks themselves whether they w...Seriously? Who ever asks themselves whether they would draw a flowchart in their journal?<br /><br />Why so much navel-gazing? Who cares what high school students feel? It&#39;s history class, not a psych eval. History isn&#39;t important merely because of its subjective interesting-ness to teenagers. <br /><br />Oh, Philadelphia, site of such a proud historical past! Yet they waste history class time on fake journal entries about imagined &quot;adventures.&quot;C Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01178189190498225759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-9378962100751017632015-07-21T22:06:52.878-04:002015-07-21T22:06:52.878-04:00&quot;How fair a comparison this particular anecdo...&quot;How fair a comparison this particular anecdote suggests depends on whether there exist counties in Finland that, like Colon County MI, don&#39;t offer public education in math beyond algebra 2.&quot;<br /><br />There are no &quot;counties&quot; like that. All high schools follow the same (minimum) curriculum and all students take the same exam (the matriculation examination) at the end of their studies, though you can choose between &quot;regular&quot; (min. six courses) and advanced (min. ten) Math. That exam, btw, lasts six hours and you have to answer eight questions, IIRC (or was it ten?). Still, if they expect you to spend over 30 minutes to one question, the calculations are probably not easy.Tyttihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02337186070833213172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-6064322796758718022015-07-21T21:37:04.009-04:002015-07-21T21:37:04.009-04:00I really enjoyed reading your article. I found thi...I really enjoyed reading your article. I found this as an informative and interesting post, so i think it is very useful and knowledgeable. I would like to thank you for the effort you have made in writing this article.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.edupdf.org" rel="nofollow">edupdf.org</a>sarah leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02654077877293303880noreply@blogger.com